A self-taught critic and genuine movie geek
There are plenty of stories about ‘paying your dues’ to succeed in Hollywood — they’re as old as the movies themselves — and while some are genuinely funny or just odd, all too many of them are really stories of the casting couch and what women have to do to succeed. Whatever It Takes follows the journey Alicia (Robbie Barnes, Beyond Repair) takes through the City of Angels — in this case a misnomer if ever there was one — as she struggles for the fame she’s always craved.
Driving late at night has its advantages — almost no traffic, for example — but it also has its drawbacks, when, like Jorah (Kinsley Funari) in Beyond Repair, you find yourself in dire need of a rest room, you’re still far from home, and everything’s closed. At last salvation appears in the form of a brightly-lit gas station and Jorah gratefully pulls in and parks. Granted, the mechanic on duty (Jesse Dillon Sorrells) isn’t very friendly and the bathroom itself isn’t the cleanest — not exactly a shock — but any port in a storm.